Fluid delivery devices have numerous uses such as delivering a therapeutic liquid (e.g., a liquid medicine) to a patient subcutaneously. In a patient with diabetes mellitus, for example, ambulatory infusion pumps have been used to deliver insulin to a patient. These ambulatory infusion pumps have the ability to offer sophisticated fluid delivery profiles including variable basal rates and bolus requirements. The ability to carefully control drug delivery can result in better efficacy of the drug and therapy and less toxicity to the patient.
Some existing ambulatory infusion pumps include a reservoir to contain the liquid medicine and use electromechanical pumping or metering technology to deliver the therapeutic liquid to a needle and/or soft cannula that is inserted subcutaneously into the patient. The infusion pumps are generally provided with an empty reservoir, which must be filled with the therapeutic liquid. Using conventional techniques, the reservoir may be filled by first filling a syringe with the therapeutic liquid and then injecting the liquid into the reservoir via a fill port in the pump. The process of filling the syringe typically involves numerous steps such as sterilizing the vial of insulin, injecting the syringe needle, retracting the syringe plunger and removing air from the syringe. Also, the exposed needle of such syringes may be hazardous and requires additional care when filling the pump.
Existing prefilled syringes, such as syringe “pens,” may be obtained already filled with therapeutic liquid. The process of filling the infusion pump would be simplified by using such a prefilled syringe; however, existing infusion pumps are not designed to interface with existing prefilled syringes. Without a proper interface to a prefilled syringe, the infusion pump may not be properly filled with the therapeutic liquid and the exposed needle of the prefilled syringe may be hazardous.